A Short Set of Exercises and a Breath Taking Review

I am thinking about a set of exercises I do for my shoulder each day and about my lungs that help me breathe through the exercise.

The exercises were given to me by my physiotherapist, three times a day he said.

Today I decided to time myself during that short set. Together with the five minutes of a heating pad on the muscles after the exercises were done, the short set took 40 minutes – my fastest time ever. With that information, my mind makes a check mark against the question where has my time been going in the last few weeks?

While I bask in the feeling of the heat on newly forming muscles of my shoulder, I take a book review in the other hand: Michael J. Stephen’s wide-ranging book “Breath Taking: the Power, Fragility and Future of our Extraordinary Lungs” (East Atlantic Monthly Press).

This is my second time through this article, knowing that I am probably never going to get to read the book.

Further, I am not sure I will be able to remember the title of the book, but still the words in the review strike me deeply.

I underline the following: "With each of the roughly 20,000 breaths we take in a day, air travels through convoluted passages that can stretch for 1,500 miles to one of the approximately 500 million alveoli - - tiny, clustered air sacs – that each of our lungs holds”.

How could I have had a better morning?  Nor how could I take a deeper breath?

Arta

The Gap of Time

We attended Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, armed with ideas of what we would buy for snacks.  Our tickets has been pre-purchased.  That doesn't mean that Alex, Duncan or I knew how to get those tickets out of the kiosk where we were to pick them up.  I tried first.  When things didn't go smoothly for me, I felt one of those older grandchildren grab Rebecca's credit card from my hand and begin the process without my expertise.  That worked much better.

What is it with these people in Victoria.  Again, a full house of old people at the theatre.  We found seats high up on the right side and then I saved them while the boys went back for their snacks.

Some things went wrong with the production.  I tried to remember,  this is a new company and they don't have all of the sophisticated equipment and personnel that we usually enjoy.

The sound was too soft for the first 1/4 of the play.  Then bang, they corrected that.

We didn't get enough of those beautiful close-ups that I enjoy.  Still, it was much better than sitting at home and missing the whole thing.

What went right is that at the end of the night, the boys "knew" the play, and some good lines (the most famous being ... Exit, chased by a bear).

We might use that line out at the lake in the summer.

... also available as an e-book ...

The serendipitous moment from the event happened in the book store the next day.  Rebecca saw Jeanette Winterson's new book called The Gap of Time.

It is William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale retold.  I am about half way through.  This might be the first time I am ahead of Mary on reading Winterson.

Having just seen the original Shakespear makes the cover story really interesting.  Here is the Oct 2015 review of the book from The New York Times or read the review from The Guardian if you choose.

Arta